Matt Lauer dishes about infamous Tom Cruise "glib" interview

Kristyn Burtt is an LA-based entertainment reporter who has covered everything from 'Dancing With the Stars' to the Oscars. If she’s not on the red carpet, she’s at home in yoga pants watching Netflix and eating potato chips.

"There are times where, when you least expect it, you get someone who sits on this couch... and all of a sudden you say something and you can see in the person's' eyes a physical change," Lauer recalled. "That was one of those times... I knew I was going to go in a certain area, and you watch the change, and then it's your job almost to get the hell out of the way."

The 55-year-old anchor probed about Cruise's Scientology beliefs and his church's antidepressant stance. The actor went on to call Lauer "glib" and insult actress Brooke Shields for using psychiatric drugs after suffering from postpartum depression.

Lauer shared to Stern's Sirius XM audience, "It touched a nerve, no question. That was a very big nerve in his life and in his belief system."

The most fascinating revelation was that the Oblivion star's reps called the morning show and asked that "the whole antidepressant thing" be eliminated from the pre-taped segment.

"It was like, 'Yeah... without that, we don't have a segment,'" Lauer said.

However, the news veteran went on to defend the movie star.

He told Stern, "I want to put it in perspective, because although there was maybe a Cold War period after that interview of about a year, he since has come forward and said, you know, that was a strange time in his life and he regrets the way it came across."